covertactionfandomcom-20200214-history
Paymaster
A Paymaster is one of the role archtypes that a Participant in a Criminal Plot can have. His primary task is to acquire funds that will be used as payment for one of the other Participants in the Plot. Definition The Paymaster is defined as a Participant who acquires the "Payoff" Item and delivers it to another Participant. The recipient may be the final destination of the Payoff (such as the Major Agent), or he can be a Courier who will in turn deliver the Payoff to someone else. Paymasters never commit any Crimes. They may send and receive messages, and will only handle the Payoff item. Appearance in Plots Paymasters do not participate in every plot. They are usually only involved in high-risk operations, where a Major Agent requires payment for a dangerous job. Otherwise, it's assumed that payment for a crime is handled clandestinely and gradually after the plot has concluded. Once the Paymaster has delivered the Payoff to its next handler (or to the Payoff's target), the Paymaster's task is usually completed and they will attempt to go into hiding. The only way to stop this from happening, short of Arresting or Turning the Paymaster, is to Confiscate the Payoff first. This will cause the Paymaster to acquire the Payoff again within one or more days. This can be repeated indefinitely as required, but will usually not prevent the Major Crime from taking place, it will only prevent the Paymaster from going into hiding. Rank and Scoring Paymasters tend to be relatively high-Ranking participants, worth a respectable number of Points. The Payoff is worth 50 points if confiscated before its intended recipient can deposit or stash it. You do not acquire another 50 points for confiscating the item more than once. Strategy Paymasters can be relatively easy to capture. When the Paymaster acquires the Payoff, you will be notified by InterPol about a large sum of money being withdrawn. This will alert you that a Paymaster is involved, and will usually also reveal the location of the Paymaster (it's written at the end of the bulletin from InterPol). In addition, Paymasters are usually only relevant to the plot after the crime has been executed. For this reason it is usually safe to arrest them, even early on, without disrupting the plot. No one will notice that they are gone until such time that the crime has already been executed and the appropriate participant requires the Payoff to proceed. This gives you some time to find and arrest that participant, assuming you even intend to allow them to execute the crime in the first place. Note however that on occasion, the Paymaster is supposed to deliver the Payoff to a Courier, who will in turn deliver it to its intended target. If this is the case, arresting the Paymaster early can cause the Courier to go into hiding. To avoid this eventuality, you might be able to confiscate the Payoff repeatedly - as many times as required to prevent the Paymaster and/or Courier from going into hiding. To do this, locate the Payoff and confiscate it before either of them go into hiding. This will cause them to try and acquire and transfer it again, as many times as you can properly confiscate it. If you can manage this, you can pretty much postpone arresting these two participants until much later in the plot. Category:Role Archtypes